27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Laurel or Hardy, not Laurel & Hardy, August 2, 2007
This review is from: Laurel and Hardy: Masters of Comedy (DVD)
I didn't expect much from this set, and my expectations were amply met. However, I don't consider my purchase of this set to have been entirely a waste of money, as there are a couple of pieces on here that I plan on showing to my 14-year-old son by way of bridging the gap between Buster Keaton, whose work we've been watching for the past month, and Laurel & Hardy.
If you are thinking of buying this set because it appears to be a collection of Laurel & Hardy shorts, think again. Although the clips shown on the packaging are from some of the famous later shorts, none of those clips matches anything on the discs. Most of these films come from the earlier solo careers of Laurel and Hardy. I gave this set 2 stars mostly because of the false impression given by the packaging. For the contents alone, I'd give three stars.
Over-all, I am glad to have bought this set so that I could see these films. But if I lost it I would not replace it.
I'll list the titles. You can look them up on the Internet for more information; some of them you'd be able to download poorer quality versions for free. All are silent and black & white unless otherwise noted. The quality is, for the most part, decent; I was expecting far worse. There is a problem of lack of lighting on a number of the intertitles, which really ought to have been corrected, and the accompanying music lacks any relevance to the on-screen action because it is just taken from crackly old records.
Laurel and Hardy "Masters of Comedy" contains two disks: "Comedy's Best Duo" and "Hilarious Antics". I think these are also available separately.
The track listing for Comedy's Best Duo is:
"Tree in a Test Tube" 1941. Color (not colorized). Silent very limited action, with astoundingly irritating voiceover. Made by the Dept of Agriculture to advertise wood. This was the only film Laurel & Hardy made in color.
"Stolen Jools" 1931. Listed as "Stolen Tools". Talkie. Has a few seconds of Laurel & Hardy. And a few seconds of Buster Keaton. And a few seconds of each of dozens of other famous actors. This was an all-star fundraising movie.
"Home Movies" Various bits of silent home movies. I actually enjoyed watching this long segment, apart from the footage of what was probably a radio interview with Hardy which just made me wish I could lipread.
"Mud & Sand" 1922. Stan Laurel. Worth buying the set just for this three-part movie.
"Short Kilts" 1924. Stan Laurel. Fairly horrible quality. Actually just fairly horrible altogether.
The last title on this disk is listed as being "The Soilers" but they lie. It is merely an excerpt from part two of "Mud & Sand"
The track listing for Hilarious Antics is:
"Hop To It, Bell Hop" 1925. Oliver Hardy and Bobby Ray.
"Saw Mill" 1922. Larry Semon (with Oliver Hardy).
"Lucky Dog (extract)" 1921 (but says 1917). This 17 minute extract does include the first on-screen meeting of Laurel with Hardy.
"Kid Speed" 1924. Larry Semon (with Oliver Hardy).
"Yes Yes Nanette" 1925. James Finlayson and Oliver Hardy. Co-directed by Stan Laurel.
"The Paper Hanger's Helper" 1925. Oliver Hardy and Bobby Ray. This is the 10 minute re-release version of "Stick Around".
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Laurel & Hardy Masters of Comedy, January 7, 2008
A Kid's Review
This review is from: Laurel and Hardy: Masters of Comedy (DVD)
THE MASTERS OF COMEDY
LAUREL & HARDY
This is one box with 2 DVDs that have 12 movies.
There is one short talky with about 30 famous (old)actors in walk-on parts.
The remaining shorts are all silent including a really long home movie at maybe Laulrel's house, with kids doing kid stuff ....boring!
Many are poor quality and some are just Laurel and some are just Hardy.
Silent movies are not much good for me, I was expecting all talkies.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Fraud, pure and simple, January 18, 2008
This review is from: Laurel and Hardy: Masters of Comedy (DVD)
There seems to be no end to the exploitation of Laurel and Hardy by unscrupulous companies trying to hoodwink the unknowing public. There is no greater L&H fan on this earth than I, but of all the DVD releases available, the vast majority fall into these categories: (1) old silent movies that were made before L&H became a real team and that amount to nothing more than historical curiosities, (2) public-domain (usually lousy) prints of a few of their weaker, later movies (e.g., Atoll K, Flying Deuces), (3) worthless short-shorts (e.g., Tree in a Test Tube, The Stolen Jools), and (4) the wartime atrocities (e.g., Air Raid Wardens, Jitterbugs, The Big Noise, Nothing but Trouble).
So what's out there that's good? The two Lions Gate DVDs (Sons of the Desert, etc., and Way Out West, etc.), and from Turner, Fra Diavolo and Bonnie Scotland, and that's about it in the United States.
If you really love L&H, get the 21 DVD set from England (www.amazon.co.uk) and pick up a region-free, PAL-converting DVD player (they are widely available and not expensive). Then, with the Turner discs, you will have every L&H film worth having, restored and remastered, with colorized and foreign-language versions to boot.
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